At last, the Premier League season kicks off in full, with Liverpool taking the field under Brendan Rodgers for the first time in league play at West Bromwich Albion. Former assistant Steve Clarke took over for the West Midlands side after Roy Hodgson's departure, and while he'll likely be familiar enough with much of the personnel for Liverpool, he'll be facing a club that's sought to forge a much different identity on the pitch than the one he oversaw with Kenny Dalglish.

Things started to accelerate pretty quickly over the past few weeks--right after the Euros it seemed like it would take forever for the league season to get here, but with the North American tour and Europa League action breaking what would normally be an uneventful stretch, all of a sudden we're less than ...